Africa's animation industry goes global on Netflix, Disney

Africa's animation industry and its fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of "Supa Team 4" — a Netflix series about four teenage girls who become undercover superheroes to save the world in the futuristic city of Lusaka.

"Finally, we have our own thing, something on Netflix, which is Zambia's first," Zambian media personality Thandiwe Zulu-Vundamina tells DW.

"It is something special for Zambians. Not just the kiddies, but every Zambian, because it's part of us and we're proud," she adds.

The show is the first Netflix animation to be written and produced in Africa.

The firm behind "Supa Team 4" is South African animation studio Triggerfish, which has made a name for itself producing award-winning animation feature films and working with Disney Plus, Netflix and the BBC. It is arguably Africa's most successful animation studio.

In an email, Triggerfish CEO Stuart Forrest told DW, "We hope 'Supa Team 4' will have the effect of showing Africa (and the world) the delightful richness of telling stories that are grounded in a specific African culture, in this case, a Zambian culture with a pan-African nod."

A month of two firsts

The talk this month isn't just about Netflix's "Supa Team 4." On July 5, Disney Plus released the animation anthology "Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire," also its first to be written and produced in Africa, again by Triggerfish. 

These two animation series "are like a necessary step in the progress, for our country, our continent," South African animator Kabelo Maaka tells DW.

And while the two shows were produced by the same production studio, they couldn't be more different. As an anthology, "Kizazi Moto" moves among different styles, languages, eras and narratives from episode to episode. It is essentially a pan-African production with several writers and producers from many countries showcasing diverse stories — from a very unusual coming-of-age story to a futuristic, never-colonized parallel universe in Zimbabwe. "Supa Team 4," on the other hand, is set in one place and time — a futuristic Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

These two series alone demonstrate how Africans want to share their stories through animation. Many storytellers are driven by the desire to see themselves, their experiences and realities reflected, as "Supa Team 4" creator Malenga Mulendema has said.

What makes a story authentic?

Most Africans have grown up rarely seeing themselves and their experiences represented in animation. So a generation of storytellers is now trying to change that. And for them, representation goes beyond black and brown characters who wear their hair in braids or dreadlocks. It's also about language, with accents and dialects playing a major role in their work.

"The way we sound also affects how the animation performs itself, like how the characters move," explains Kabelo Maaka, Founder and Creative Director of Cabblow Studios.

In the episodes of "Kizazi Moto," the characters move seamlessly between English and other languages, including Zulu and Yoruba. They speak like Africans do — switching between languages and using slang that can only be captured by storytellers on the continent.

Despite all the buzz, "Supa Team 4" has received criticism for its accents from some Zambians. They felt the accents weren't authentic after watching the trailer a few weeks ago.

"There's a certain African accent that's put up in Hollywood, which we're like, 'But we don't sound like that,'" Thandiwe Zulu-Vundamina tells DW.

Only one of the main voice actors in "Supa Team 4" is Zambian, she explains, pointing to actress Zowa Ngwira, who is known for her work in the TV drama series "Mpali."

"We expected more of the Zambian accent, not so much of the Hollywood African accent," Zulu-Vundamina explains.

Is that the pan-African nod that Triggerfish CEO Forrest refers to? While there is some disappointment with that choice, most Zambians, including Zulu-Vundamina, are happy just to see a story told by one of their compatriots on a global platform. But the discussion of what is authentic and truly African often confronts creators and studios.

"It's a symbiotic relationship, and it's constantly trying to balance both the local and the international from a narrative perspective, but also from an economic or financial perspective," says Chocolate Tribe CEO and founder Nosipho Maketo-van den Bragt.

Fostering animation through collaboration

Chocolate Tribe is a South African animation and visual effects studio that has worked with global brands, including Netflix and Disney Plus. Together with Triggerfish, they generate a significant amount of their revenues from clients outside Africa. The post-pandemic world has also been a boon to them as it has changed how people work.

"You can have different artists in different parts of the world working together, collaborating, and coming up with unique stories together because animation, for the most part, is CG (computer generated)," Nosipho Maketo-van den Bragt explains.

Collaboration is key in Africa. And it is helping the continent's animation industry deal with challenges, including education, access to software and equipment.

The individuals in this story are training others and trying to raise awareness about the industry to potential talent and collaborators, both at home and abroad. Kabelo Maaka hosts a podcast, which aims to inform listeners about running an animation business, and both Triggerfish and Chocolate Tribe offer internships and training opportunities.

In fact, "Supa Team 4" was selected in a Triggerfish story lab five years ago. And now it is being released as a Netflix original. So "Supa Team 4" may very well be the beginning of what's to come from Africa's animation industry.

Edited by: Brenda Haas